Are you a former homophobe who now supports gay marriage?
Were you an long-time atheist who found religion?
Did you once think that Pepsi was a vile concoction and Coke was made of ambrosia, and now think the reverse is true?
Well, tell us about it–what your former opinion was, what your current opinion is, and why you changed your mind. For purposes of this thread, the only judgment as to what is a major change of opinion is your own.
Since I turned 18 in 1972, my opinions on many things have changed a great deal since then. I’ll come back with some of my biggest changes when I’ve had time to think about it, but what interests me is which of those changes in views simply represented the changes of views of the entire culture (remember that equal rights for women was still pretty controversial in the U.S. in 1972, and homosexual acts were still criminal in most states), and which didn’t.
Depends what you mean by “adulthood.” Many of my most dramatic changes in opinion and political position happened in my late teens and early twenties. While this is officially adulthood, it always seems to me that this transformation was a part of my growing up.
Yes.
Like most of my peers in school, i found even the idea of homosexuality disgusting and perverted. Anyone at our school even suspected of being gay was hounded mercilessly. I took this attitude into my early adulthood. Of course, i had never met a gay person (at least, one who was openly gay). By my early twenties, i had been out in the world a bit more, and had traveled and met a whole lot of new and interesting people, and had come to realize that who you fuck or who you love is none of my business, and doesn’t change what type of person you are.
I also grew up fairly racist. I was not some hood-wearing vigilante; my racism was the casual, thoughtless racism that was so prevalent in Australian society at the time, and that is still pretty common in many parts of the country. To me, as a kid, the Australian Aborigines were “boongs” or “coons” who were dirty and uncivilized and most likely criminal. Again, of course, i’d never actually met one. Asians were “slopeheads” who should go back to their own country, or at least learn to speak English. Lebanese were “wogs.”
This sort of thing was only said amongst ourselves (i.e., among the Anglo guys i hung out with at school). We never actually taunted people openly, or called them racist word to their face. I’m not sure if this made our racism better or worse. My high school was very white, and was located in an area of Sydney with large populations of Vietnamese, Lebanese, and other immigrant groups. We played against these folks in rugby and cricket, and the sport field rivalry probably exacerbated our bigotry.
Again, this is all something i left behind in the few years after leaving high school.
Religious to atheist.
Also idealistic to pretty cynical.
Up until a couple of years ago, I NEVER wanted to have children.
My daughter turns one on the 31st.
As a teen / young adult I was deeply judgmental of people, cynical, and reveled in my powers of sarcasm.
As I moved into adulthood and became exposed to more and more, traveled, etc., my attitudes softened considerably and I became much more positive about life and pluralistic about people. I no longer judge people like I did, in fact I probably go the other way in terms of acceptance.
I attribute the earlier attitudes to a deep lack of confidence and the changes to a rising self confidence.
I spent 20 years of my adult life believing in something many dopers currently believe in: left wing ideology… Naive and gullible, I was…
I became an atheist. No particular epiphanal moment. I just realized at some point in the last few years that my ongoing “crisis of faith” that I’d been having since I was 17 and quit going to Mass was actually a complete and total inability to buy any of that stuff as reality. I’m still making peace with it but I feel much better now that I’m not telling people I’m a “weak agnostic.”
I guess I’ve moved from pro-choice, to pro-life, to conflicted, but slightly more on the pro-choice side.
I grew up in a strongly pro-choice household, with my mom frequently marching or going to rallies, so I grew up being pro-choice without thinking much about it.
When my children were born, the idea of aborting any of those amazing precious children and never giving them a chance at life was horrifying and I became more strongly pro-life.
Now I’m a little older, and hopefully a bit wiser. I still think abortion is horrible, but in many cases it is the best of several bad options. I guess I support it being legal, but I would prefer for kids to get hit over and over with the best abstinence and birth control information. I really wish abortion weren’t necessary, but sometimes it is.
You know, it’s actually possible to express yourself without implicitly insulting other persons in the conversation. I think there’s a class on it at the New School. 
Probably regarding non-monogamous relationships, including polygynous and polyandryous marriage. When I was younger, I felt that all non-monogamous relationships simply wrong in some fundamental way. At some point, I realized that this was more about my personal “ick” factor than it was about the cosmic rightness or wrongness of relationships. These days, I’d say that there is nothing wrong with poly(whatever) relationships as long as all parties are consenting adults and there is no abuse.* I’d apply the same criteria to monogamous relationships.
*By which I mean “understanding the legal and social ramifications, and having a personal desire to be in the relationship” rather than “agreeing to the relationship in order to please a family member or religious leader.”
**I do believe that there are some rights you can’t give up, and the right to not by physically or psychologically abused by a partner is one of them. I don’t care if your religion or culture says it’s OK to smack your wife around (and that that a wife should accept being smacked around) - that’s abuse, even if you think some deity approves.
“Intro to Design and Management” probably covers it: http://www.newschool.edu/pdf/Parsons_student_handbook.pdf
That’s just the communications program - I’m sure there are others.
I just took the joke way too far, didn’t I?
I’m much more conservative in my politics than I was in my youth. And just for the record a right-wing Canadian is probably nearer to the middle of the pack in US politics, and does not imply any religious underlying in the least.
Yeah, I could have sympathized with the socialists when I was younger, but in my grouchy old (47) age I am all for less government, more privatization, lower taxes and a focus on core services.
I was a strong “hawk” in terms of our (Israel’s) attitude to “Secutiry” and, in our case, Territorial Compromise. I’m now fairly strongly on the “dovish” (pro-getting-the-hell-outta-the-West-Bank. Preferably leaving the settlers there…) side.
I was always an atheist, though.
According to the algorithms we use in SmartAssery class, you took it just far enough. A single additional word would have ruined it, as would any lame attempt by another to comment on your attempt.
What?
I used to be of the opinion that getting drunk every night was essential to my life. Now I know that staying sober is a million times better.
I voted for Reagan.
I was too young for that, but I voted for Bush Senior over Duke. Admittedly I was trying to get into the panties of the treasurer of the Young Republicans at the time.
Once upon a time, I was a devout Mormon and very pro-life.
Today I’m an atheist and staunchly pro-choice.
First of all, I was never planning to have children - my daughter turns 7 on Friday.
I also got a lot more patient, with life and myself.